Corrigan Vaughan’s fantastic reply to those questioning her Star Trek fandom at the premiere of the new movie “Star Trek: Into Darkness” included this gem:
And one more thing: Stop trying to pit us girls against each other. We shouldn’t feel like we have to throw other girls under the bus to show that we’re REAL fans. The only fake fan is the fan who legitimately does not like the thing s/he claims to love–which has nothing to do with gender–and it’s really not your business to sort out the sheep from the goats here. In fact, I welcome the faker into the fold, because s/he needs a community, and we’ve got it in spades. I mean, is there not enough space in fandom, so we have to do some sort of weeding out process before it gets too full? Does it diminish your fanboy status that I started obsessively reading Judge Dredd because of the 2012 movie? Are you deeply and personally hurt by someone else liking what you like, just because they like it to a lesser degree or don’t know every single thing about it?
Vaughn’s post has parallels into church circles beyond her clever use of a “sheep from the goats” reference.
Kristin Fontaine (daughter of the Cafe’s Ann Fontaine) alerted us of this article. She wrote this:
If we welcome all comers, surely that enriches us all. If they are ‘fakers’ they will get bored and leave, but some of the ‘fakers’ might find true community and a lifetime of love and support. Faith (or fandom) doesn’t always come in a particular order, and when a group decides to adopt a doctrine of scarcity rather than one of abundance, well, then they are cutting off their own nose to spite their face since any closed system will eventually die off. Welcome the people that come, not the people that you wish would come and join your group/fandom/church if you truly wish it to thrive.
Think of those excited by a particular type of connection to the church: an issue, a style of liturgy, an innovation beyond the church walls…and how quick some from within our tradition are to brush them off.
Think about some who look to transform their lives with a particular practice or by developing their own “rule of life” that models Jesus/church without adhearing to the traditional church stereotypes concerning sex, gender, and power.
Think about how the vocations of women clergy have differed from the stereotypical image of “Father so and so”, and how people have reacted.
(Plus, it would be fun to take the fan-girl/fan-boy concept to being a Jesus fan.)
Do you find any wisdom for the church in Vaughn’s response?